Let's See Your Electric Trains!

Boy! Those are some nice pix! Now I'll have dig out old shots, figure out how to upload, etc., etc. BTW, check my new avatar with picture of your humble servant in his new Stetson!!! Feeling VERY COOL.

I've been a railfan since before I was one year old, and have collected model trains about as long.

But one of my longtime dreams is finally about to come true! I grew up in Colorado, so I always wanted to model the narrow gauge, but could never afford the locomotives until this new burst of relatively inexpensive, ready-to-run equipment started coming out in HOn3.

I'm anxiously awaiting the release of this locomotive (with sound!), so I can finally build a 1930s layout. I'll have to fudge the time factor, though, so I can include all the 1950s D&RGW standard gauge equipment I've collected over the years.

I'm anxiously awaiting the release of this locomotive (with sound!), so I can finally build a 1930s layout. I'll have to fudge the time factor, though, so I can include all the 1950s D&RGW standard gauge equipment I've collected over the years. Brad

About 7 years ago, my sons love for Thomas the Tank Engine, got me back into trains.
A friend of mine at work was really into it and I finally got serious.

Since moving back to the east coast 3 years ago, all of my HO stuff has been in a box.
But now, with a new house, AND my own office/playroom...
I'm ready to start ripping into walls to see where my trains can run thru!
I may be able to actually have a mainline go the entire circumference of the house in the attic/eaves.

Dalexs

Click to expand...

Packed up 3 years? Try 15! That's how long all MY HO equipment has been boxed!:eusa_doh:

I'll need to find pictures of my father's layout, and take some more of his hobby, if it's not buried. He built a room that engulfed nearly half the garage for his layout. He was a life-long HO scale builder, and did a lot of kitbashing and modifying (I've mentioned the TRAC II vent he made). His line was CML, or Crystal Mountain Line. The layout was dismantled about a year after he died, but we kept the bridges, buildings, locomotives and cars, including a number of brass steam engines - some assembled, a couple not. We even kept a fenced in area on his layout that he'd called; Chanel Stockyard No. 5. That was his big joke on the layout.

Although he had built the layout, he much prefered working on the trains and structures over improving the layout. There wasn't a finished hill or tunnel to be found, but the tracks always worked and made a complete loop or two around the "Train Room," as we called it.

He hated the jerkiness of model trains, and for the last ten years or so that he was building them he'd developed a flywheel system that allowed him accelerate smoothly and to "creep" his trains around at very low speeds. He had fellow hobbyists coming to him, asking him how he did it (Bill Crane, of "Crane's Trains and Hobbies" would tell them). He was always happy to show them.

I remember that my mother was always telling him that he needed to dust them off, because of all the dirt he'd allow to accumulate on them. Then, one day, she went with him to view some real trains from a bridge. After seeing how dirty they were on top, she stopped telling him to dust his.

We sorted through everything and there's still a lot of unopened packages of parts, some brass, and a number of cars that were never started. Most of them would be from the seventies, maybe early eighties. He stopped because his health started deteriorating and his eyesight got progressively worse.

He also dabbled in N Scale, and for Christmas he built a game for the family. The object was to move all the cars from one side of the layout to the other into specific locations. There were eight spurs, each with a car, and only one central crossover. You could have no more than two cars on only one spur at any given time. It is still in one piece, but the engine and cars are stored away.

I have a friend who works for at least two train magazines. One is on real trains, and the other, I think, is for model railroaders. If you see a byline and "photos by" for one Robert (or Bob) Gallegos, that's him.

I used to love model railroads...still do. Although it never happened and probably never will, I always wanted to have an entire room-sized layout complete with wooden truss bridges, mountains, mines, rivers, the whole works. I was always a big fan of N scale specifically because of its smaller size.
This is one of my favorites
The real thing used to make special summer runs through the city where I grew up. Don't know if it's still operational or not.

Mr Newport, the name of your father's pike rings a bell, was it ever featured in a magazine?

Click to expand...

Not that I know of, Charlie. I don't recall.

fftopic:
But I do remember Tom Daniel, model designer for Monogram, stopping by for a visit, now and then, and I remember building "Vandal", "Baja Beast", "T'Rantula", "Dune Rat", "Dog Catcher, "Quicksilver" and "Cal Street Vette". When I was a kid, I "stood guard" over the real Cal Street Vette, one evening, while he was visiting. It was a metalic pearlescent white at the time. (I guess I should have saved this tidbit for the "What Celebrities Have You Met?" thread. lol)

If I remember correctly...to do an "Uncle Fester" you have to reverse the wires on one engine so it'll run backwards. I believe they're all wired to run the same direction from the factory.

Click to expand...

Or use DCC.

I used to be a passenger-train modeler and was thinking of switching from HO to N, but my preferred manufacturer (Dennis Sautters at Laser Horizons) has left the business indefinitely, and the Walthers "passenger train collection" releases won't cover everything. Guess I'm stuck, until somebody else enters the market with laser-cut sides like Mr. Sautters made... (The brass game's out of the question.)

I used to be a passenger-train modeler and was thinking of switching from HO to N, but my preferred manufacturer (Dennis Sautters at Laser Horizons) has left the business indefinitely, and the Walthers "passenger train collection" releases won't cover everything. Guess I'm stuck, until somebody else enters the market with laser-cut sides like Mr. Sautters made... (The brass game's out of the question.)

Click to expand...

Or you could kitbash a few cars. Somewhere I've an article about building B&O's Capitol Limited from Bachmann and Rivarossi equipment....